Material Archive

ACME DeLuxe Ice-Cream Bricks

This is a real store sign! Unfortunately, it's sits on what is now an antique store on Queen West, next to Local Kitchen where I had dinner tonight.

Honestly, the concept of an "ice cream brick" store named "ACME DeLuxe" seems too good to be true – it's right out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon...  :-)

Lost Toronto

 

I accidently stumbled across a really cool blog called Lost Toronto on the weekend that compares present day Toronto architecture to what existed in the late 1800s – early 1900s. I haven't shown any of the "afters" here in my post as I wanted to simply recreate my morning commute to work starting from Parkdale to Yonge Street and beyond with "befores".  Have a look at the site – if you love this sort of thing, you will get lost in it for hours.

 

Looking east on Queen towards the Dufferin underpass

The Gladstone looking east

 

North side of Queen just east of the Gladstone, 1931

 Queen & Lisgar

Queen West just east of Ossington c1919 – north side. Black Dog Video is here now.

 

Trinity College, 1913. The buildings, all except for St. Hilda's, were demolished in 1956.

 

 Queen & Manning

 
 

Queen & Bathurst, 1935

 

Queen & Bathurst (There's a Starbucks on that corner now)

 

South east corner of Queen & Bathurst where the Big Bop was.

 

Queen & Portland, 1958 – the Epicure Cafe is here now.

 

Queen & Spadina, 1910 - south east corner

 

Queen & Spadina – before the streetcar median was here, there were public bathrooms

 

 

North side of Queen east of Spadina – Le Chateau, the Rivoli and David's Tea are here now

 

Queen and Peter looking east

 

Looking south onto Peter from the north side of Queen. You can see "Peter Pan Lunch" to the left, which is still there today.

To the right under that hoarding, you can now find a GAP.

The CityTV building, which was originally constructed for the Methodist Church of Canada in 1913, was bought by CHUM in 1985.

 

Looking north on Beverly from Queen

 

 

University Ave looking south

 

University Ave looking north towards the Canada Life building.

 

Bay & Adelaide

Queen & Yonge

Yonge & Shuter – to the right is Eaton's

The first Loblaws in 1919

Yonge & Dundas 1922

Yonge & Dundas

Yonge & Dundas 1952

 

 Toronto Street & Adelaide

Dundas & Victoria Street 1923. That building is still there as "Hakim Optical".

 


This charming young butcher was photographed in front of his shop at Bloor & Brunswick in 1921.

Here's the link again: Lost Toronto

Enjoy!

 

Collecting: French Steel Cut Beaded Purses

It's probably pretty obvious by now that I like "things" and that I collect many different types of them.

One that I have a particular fondness for are vintage French steel cut purses. Something about the combination of sparkle, pattern design, handmade craftsmanship and the sheer heaviness of them, make them irresistible to me.

The above are some recent new additions to my ever growing collection.

Vintage Labels

Found here.

Raymond Savignac

A dear friend bought me this lovely Tin Tin poster from a stall along the Seine during one of my many visits to Paris when I lived in Strasboug. Sadly, it is still waiting to be framed.

I'm at the office still...

So I thought I would post something to cheer me up. Don't these ladies look splendid? Look at the old bat in the back top left – looks like she's giving them an earful and they're just la-de-da-ing it up with their Campari and sodas and cute hats.

I need to wake up: Tu Vuo' Fa l'Americano

No sudden moves...

Fischetti Travel Sketches

via Bibliodyssey

Vintage Illustrated Vogue Covers

With the trend of celebrities serving as cover models not losing any steam, it seems unlikely that we'll see any beauties like these in the near future. A shame considering how exceptional they are!

Treasure Hunting at Three Potato Four

Some fun vintage finds here at Three Potato Four. Love the tin bowling pin markers.

Vintage Halloween Decorations

 

Halloween is without a doubt one of my favourite times of the year. These amazing masks and decorations are from the collections of riptheskull & finsbry.

Wonderful Design Resource: Counter-Print

 

In their own words: "Counter-print.co.uk is dedicated to the promotion and sale of Art and Design related material. Often out of print or hard to find, we aim to celebrate both forgotten gems as well as those heralded designers that we all admire."

Vintage Beer Cans

 
Found on Flickr & posted by Lance15100

Guess what's coming up soon! Boo!

Aren't these awesome?! Halloween is without a doubt one of the best times of the year – people really get to flex some creative muscle and show how clever they are. These scans were taken from an old Ben Cooper Halloween costume box from the 1950's by Neato Coolville on Flickr.

Charming Vintage Business Cards

I gasped when I saw these – such a nerdy graphic designer thing to do but I think even those not in the "biz" can appreciate how charming these are. Look at the penmanship and the amazing little boat illustration! It appears that people used to just pick a precut card and paper style and have their names either stamped or hand lettered on to each with simply the town they were from or a title. There was only one card that had a year which was 1876. Personally, I can't imagine not being thrilled with the title of Cheese Maker or Confectioner. Maybe I should change my card to "Consumer of all things Confection and Cheese Related." Sounds good no? It's dead-on accurate at least.  ;-)

This amazing collection can be seen in detail on Flickr as posted by Ink Ling.

Vintage Match Boxes

via Pillipat on Flickr

Beautiful Intricate Renderings from 1812, Paris

Found here.

Vintage Language Book Illustrations

Aren't these amazing? Click to see larger. via Pillipat

Vintage Country Fair Magazine Covers

Aren't these book covers amazing? The jacket colours are so lovely. Beautifully illustrated by John Hanna in 1954-57.
Found at Full Table & Uppercase